Google for Non-Profits Newsletter - June, 2009
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Jay Boren
Jun 30, 2009, 5:06:01 PM6/30/09
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Google for Non-Profits Newsletter - June, 2009
It's been a big month at Google. We've had over 5,000 employees take a day off to serve at various projects in their local communities as part of our annual GoogleServe event. YouTube has been in the spotlight for its role in covering the Iran election, Serve.gov launched, and lots of great new improvements and features have been added to Google products. Learn more about these developments and how they affect you and your organization in this month's update from the Google for Non-Profits team.
If you haven't already, don't forget to sign up for this year's Google Grants Workshop by Tuesday, June 30 (today!). The event is free to attend and will be held at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA in early August.
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Recruiting volunteers with All for Good and Video Volunteers
Improving your website
Optimizing your Google Grants account
Getting the most out of Google Apps
Google Voice invitations
--
Recruiting volunteers
This month, two exciting new tools were launched to help connect volunteers with opportunities that match their interests, skills and availability: All for Good and Video Volunteers. All for Good is like a Craigslist for community service, offering a new platform for recruiting volunteers and finding volunteer opportunities that interest you. It is the platform powering the recently launched Serve.gov and could be a great new tool for your organization's volunteer recruiting efforts.
Powered by All for Good, the YouTube Video Volunteers platform will help you find a nonprofit organization that needs help creating videos to promote its cause. You can sift through video opportunities on www.youtube.com/videovolunteers and connect directly with nonprofits for whom you'd like to make a video, or post your own video request for volunteers. Learn more about the platform from the Vlogbrothers, who've used their audience and talents to champion causes they care about.
--
Improving your website
Many people think that they don't know enough to create or maintain a website. With free tools such as Google Sites and Blogger, anyone can create a site within minutes and easily add content such as YouTube videos, a Google Checkout button to collect donations and a Google Form to recruit new volunteers and add names to your mailing list (learn how below).
This month, the Google blogosphere has posted some great how-to's on easy ways to improve your web presence:
- Check out this article from the Google Grants blog to learn how to make sure that search engines are able to search your site and move your website up in the ranks.
- This article on user experience from the AdSense blog gives some useful pointers about how to engage your users and make sure that people get the most from your site.
- Google Web Elements allow you to easily add your favorite Google products onto your own website. Be sure to visit the web elements site to add things like presentations, maps and custom search boxes to your site with the click of a mouse.
--
Optimizing your Google Grants account
As most of you know, Google Grants is an incredibly powerful program that gives any qualifying nonprofit up to $10,000 per month in free AdWords. However, you only get out of AdWords what you put into it. Not all ads are created equal, and its important to understand which ads work, and which don't.
Using Google Analytics (another free tool), you can track the impact of your ads by monitoring traffic to your site. Learn about a new integration with Analytics that lets you easily see the Return on Investment from your AdWords campaigns directly inside the AdWords interface here. Also check out this post from the Google Grants blog with some pointers about using more of your Grant allocation. Want to learn more about how AdWords works and some best practices for getting a better click-through rate? Free, on-demand AdWords webinars that take you from the very basics through advanced use can be found here.
--
Getting the most out of Google Apps
Google Apps is a powerful set of free tools including Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations and Google Sites. The Premier EDU edition of these tools are also available for free to non-profits. Learn more here.
A very cool feature in Google Docs is the Forms feature in spreadsheets. Forms allow you to send a set of questions to anyone and when they submit their answers, they are collected in a single spreadsheet that you can access from any computer with an Internet connection. Check out this Google Docs blog post to learn how you can put forms to work for your organization.
Another great feature in Google Docs is Presentations. For those of you who don't know about Presentations or haven't used it in awhile, be sure to check out the awesome new features. And, for those who just can't stop using PowerPoint, you can still do all your editing there and when you're done, simply upload to Google Docs and you'll have a finished version stored online forever. No need to worry about forgetting hard copies or being put on the spot to present, just open the presentation and share the link.
Most of you are probably familiar with Gmail. But, are you a Gmail ninja? Whether you're brand new to the service or already a weathered power user, you can visit www.gmail.com/tips to learn more about all the shortcuts and goodies that Gmail has to offer.
--
Google Voice invitations
It's been a big month at Google. We've had over 5,000 employees take a day off to serve at various projects in their local communities as part of our annual GoogleServe event. YouTube has been in the spotlight for its role in covering the Iran election, Serve.gov launched, and lots of great new improvements and features have been added to Google products. Learn more about these developments and how they affect you and your organization in this month's update from the Google for Non-Profits team.
If you haven't already, don't forget to sign up for this year's Google Grants Workshop by Tuesday, June 30 (today!). The event is free to attend and will be held at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA in early August.
--
Recruiting volunteers with All for Good and Video Volunteers
Improving your website
Optimizing your Google Grants account
Getting the most out of Google Apps
Google Voice invitations
--
Recruiting volunteers
This month, two exciting new tools were launched to help connect volunteers with opportunities that match their interests, skills and availability: All for Good and Video Volunteers. All for Good is like a Craigslist for community service, offering a new platform for recruiting volunteers and finding volunteer opportunities that interest you. It is the platform powering the recently launched Serve.gov and could be a great new tool for your organization's volunteer recruiting efforts.
Powered by All for Good, the YouTube Video Volunteers platform will help you find a nonprofit organization that needs help creating videos to promote its cause. You can sift through video opportunities on www.youtube.com/videovolunteers and connect directly with nonprofits for whom you'd like to make a video, or post your own video request for volunteers. Learn more about the platform from the Vlogbrothers, who've used their audience and talents to champion causes they care about.
--
Improving your website
Many people think that they don't know enough to create or maintain a website. With free tools such as Google Sites and Blogger, anyone can create a site within minutes and easily add content such as YouTube videos, a Google Checkout button to collect donations and a Google Form to recruit new volunteers and add names to your mailing list (learn how below).
This month, the Google blogosphere has posted some great how-to's on easy ways to improve your web presence:
- Check out this article from the Google Grants blog to learn how to make sure that search engines are able to search your site and move your website up in the ranks.
- This article on user experience from the AdSense blog gives some useful pointers about how to engage your users and make sure that people get the most from your site.
- Google Web Elements allow you to easily add your favorite Google products onto your own website. Be sure to visit the web elements site to add things like presentations, maps and custom search boxes to your site with the click of a mouse.
--
Optimizing your Google Grants account
As most of you know, Google Grants is an incredibly powerful program that gives any qualifying nonprofit up to $10,000 per month in free AdWords. However, you only get out of AdWords what you put into it. Not all ads are created equal, and its important to understand which ads work, and which don't.
Using Google Analytics (another free tool), you can track the impact of your ads by monitoring traffic to your site. Learn about a new integration with Analytics that lets you easily see the Return on Investment from your AdWords campaigns directly inside the AdWords interface here. Also check out this post from the Google Grants blog with some pointers about using more of your Grant allocation. Want to learn more about how AdWords works and some best practices for getting a better click-through rate? Free, on-demand AdWords webinars that take you from the very basics through advanced use can be found here.
--
Getting the most out of Google Apps
Google Apps is a powerful set of free tools including Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations and Google Sites. The Premier EDU edition of these tools are also available for free to non-profits. Learn more here.
A very cool feature in Google Docs is the Forms feature in spreadsheets. Forms allow you to send a set of questions to anyone and when they submit their answers, they are collected in a single spreadsheet that you can access from any computer with an Internet connection. Check out this Google Docs blog post to learn how you can put forms to work for your organization.
Another great feature in Google Docs is Presentations. For those of you who don't know about Presentations or haven't used it in awhile, be sure to check out the awesome new features. And, for those who just can't stop using PowerPoint, you can still do all your editing there and when you're done, simply upload to Google Docs and you'll have a finished version stored online forever. No need to worry about forgetting hard copies or being put on the spot to present, just open the presentation and share the link.
Most of you are probably familiar with Gmail. But, are you a Gmail ninja? Whether you're brand new to the service or already a weathered power user, you can visit www.gmail.com/tips to learn more about all the shortcuts and goodies that Gmail has to offer.
--
Google Voice invitations
Google Voice allows users to choose their own phone number from any area code. The best part (besides the fact that it's free)? You get to choose which phones ring when someone calls you. Your Google Voice number can ring up to six phones at the same time. Pick up whichever phone is closest and, if you miss the call, the voicemail will be transcribed to text and sent to you in an email. Learn more about the service on the Google Blog. Invitations to use the service are being sent out to those who have already requested the service. You can add your name to the waiting list by visiting www.google.com/voiceinvite.
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That's it for this month's newsletter. As always, please send any suggestions for the newsletter or Google for Non-Profits site our way.
Have a great rest of the week!
Jay from the Google for Non-Profits team
--
That's it for this month's newsletter. As always, please send any suggestions for the newsletter or Google for Non-Profits site our way.
Have a great rest of the week!
Jay from the Google for Non-Profits team
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